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THE  WHOLE  QUESTION  OF  TAXATION  IS  REMITTED  BY  THIS  BILL  TO 

THE  PEOPLE  AND  GOVERNMENT  OF  PUERTO  RICO.    HERE  IS 

THE  CHARTER  OF  PUERTO  RICAN  SELF-GOVERNMENT. 


SPEECH 


OF 


HoN.CHAUNCEY  M.DEPEW, 


OF    NEW    YORK, 


SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


Monday,  April  2,  19OO. 


WASHINGTON. 
I  90O. 


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T 


SPEECH 

OF 

HON.    CHAUNCEY   M.    DEPEW, 


The  Senate  having  under  consideration  the  bill  (H.  R.  8245) 
temporarily  to  provide  revenues  for  the  relief  of  the  island  of 
Puerto  Rico,  and  for  other  purposes — 

Mr.  DEPEWsaid: 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  I  have  been  listening  with  great  in- 
terest to  the  many  and  very  able  speeches  which  have 
been  delivered  upon  the  Puerto  Rican  tariff.  I  have 
endeavored  to  find  in  them  a  solution  of  the  singular 
political  conditions  which  seem  to  have  arisen  out  of 
the  presentation  of  this  measure.  I  have  thought  per- 
haps the  fact  that  the  country  is  divided  into  storm 
centers  and  normally  placid  conditions  is  due  to  the  ex- 
tended discussion  of  the  constitutional •  question  having 
obscured  the  real  meaning  of  a  measure  of  revenue  and 
relief. 

There  is  no  division  among  the  majority  in  either 
House  as  to  the  power  of  Congress  to  legislate  on  this 
subject.  The  majority  all  agree  that  the  Constitution 
does  not  extend  by  its  own  power  over  these  new  pos- 
sessions, and  that  Congress  can  legislate  for  them  as  it 
deems  wise,  subject  only  to  the  prohibitions  upon  Con- 
gress in  the  Constitution.  The  Democratic  party  ac- 
cepted the  other  view,  that  the  Constitution  does  extend 
by  its  own  force  into  the  territories,  from  the  moment 
that  it  was  invented  by  John  C.  Calhoun  for  the  pur- 
pose of  carrying  slavery  into  the  new  Territories,  when 

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it  was  impossible  against  the  aroused  conscience  of  the 
country  to  secure  legislation  to  that  effect.  It  is  but 
fair  to  say  that  while  the  action  of  the  country  by  the 
unanimous  consent  of  all  statesmen  and  of  all  parties 
for  fifty  years,  and  the  trend  of  the  decisions  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  sustain  the  power  of  Congress  to  take  the 
whole  or  any  part  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  into  new  territories  and  to  establish 
governments  for  them,  yet  the  questions  raised  by  the 
acquisitions  of  Cuba,  Hawaii  and  the  Philippines,  when 
presented  to  the  Supreme  Court,  must  result  in  such  a 
broad  and  comprehensive  interpretation  as  will  make 
clear  for  all  time  the  position  of  the  United  States  upon 
the  government  of  territories  which  come  to  us. 

While  the  practical  part  of  this  measure  has  received 
some  consideration,  yet  it  has  resulted  in  pictures  of 
Puerto  Rico  and  its  inhabitants  which  are  utterly  mis- 
leading. The  lower  house  of  the  Iowa  legislature  the 
other  day  adopted  a  resolution  for  free  trade  with 
Puerto  Rico  on  the  sentimental  ground  that  her  people 
had  accepted  our  sovereignty  willingly,  while  other 
islands  were  resisting  it.  The  sudden  collapse  of  the 
Spanish  power,  and  the  almost  instantaneous  dropping 
into  our  hands  of  the  island  possessions  of  Spain, 
found  different  conditions  in  these  possessions.  It  is 
admitted,  for  instance,  that  Cuba  is  to  be  under  our 
.  Government  only  until  she  is  capable  of  governing  her- 
self. We  all  know  that,  with  the  revolutionary  ele- 
ments and  professional  agitators  of  that  island,  if  any 
excuse  or  opportunity  had  been  offered  there  would 
have  been  a  revolt  against  our  authority.  We  all 
know  that  in  the  Philippines  there  would  have  been 
universal  acceptance  of  government  by  the  United 
States  except  that  professional  agitators,  who  revolu- 

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tionized  for  revenue  and  had  made  fortunes  in  pre- 
vious revolts,  played  upon  the  imagination  of  an  igno- 
rant people  and  led  them  into  insurrection,  hoping  the 
United  States  would  follow  Spanish  precedents  and 
purchase  their  allegiance.  It  is  equally  true  that  in 
Puerto  Rico  the  population  is  so  poor  and  so  crowded, 
and  the  conformation  of  the  island  makes  it  so  easy  for 
an  army  to  put  down  insurrection,  that,  though  the 
same  government  existed  in  Puerto  Rico  as  in  Cuba  and 
in  the  Philippines,  it  was  impossible  to  inaugurate 
revolution  in  Puerto  Rico.  The  Puerto  Ricans  knew 
that  they  must  coine  under  some  government,  and 
after  three  hundred  years  of  Spain  hailed  with  delight 
the  transfer  to  the  United  States. 

Puerto  Rico  has  been  pictured  here  and  presented  to 
the  country  as  if  it  were  a  Vermont,  a  Massachusetts,  a 
Connecticut  or  an  Iowa,  populated  by  an  intelligent  and 
educated  people  who  had  instantly  grasped  the  problems 
of  government  and  the  institutions  of  the  United  States, 
and  were  in  all  respects  fitted  to  early  assume  a  place 
among  the  States  of  the  Union;  that  prior  and  prelimi- 
nary to  this  statehood  they  were  entitled  to  every  privi- 
lege, every  law,  every  constitutional  right  which  belongs 
to  the  citizens  of  the  States.  Puerto  Rico  has  been  de- 
scribed as  a  bride  decorated  with  flowers  and  tropical 
coloring,  and  in  culture,  education  and  training  worthy 
to  be  the  companion  and  helpmeet  of  the  idealization  of 
the  highly  developed,  liberty-loving,  and  broad-minded 
American. 

To  get  a  horizontal  view  of  this  question  we  must  come 
back  to  the  testimony  of  Puerto  Rican  citizens  and  for- 
eigners and  of  the  officers  of  the  United  States  which 
was  given  before  the  Committee  on  Puerto  Rican  Af- 
fairs. Like  judges  and  juries  who  see  and  hear  the 

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witnesses,  the  members  of  that  committee  who,  for  hours 
every  day  during  three  weeks,  saw  these  witnesses  and 
heard  their  testimony,  received  impressions  stronger 
than  the  cold  type  of  the  evidence  presents. 

Right  here  I  wish  to  express  my  profound  apprecia- 
tion of  the  great  ability  and  conscientious  industry  with 
which  the  chairman  of  our  committee,  the  senior  Sen- 
ator from  Ohio  [Mr.  FORAKEK],  has  conducted  the  in- 
vestigation and  the  legislative  management  of  this 
measure. 

Puerto  Rico  is  more  thickly  populated  than  any  coun- 
try in  Europe.  It  is  one  of  the  most  fertile  territories 
on  earth.  From  seashore  to  mountain  top  it  can  be 
cultivated.  With  capital,  enterprise,  and  modern  ma- 
chinery the  possibilities  of  increase  in  its  productiveness 
can  not  be  calculated.  It  is  a  little  over  two-thirds  the 
size  of  Connecticut,  but  has  a  much  larger  population. 
Its  industries  are  purely  agricultural.  As  in  all  coun- 
tries where  there  are  no  varied  industries,  the  young 
men  and  the  young  women  have  no  opportunities  to 
engage  in  different  pursuits.  Where  agriculture  is  the 
only  occupation  of  thickly  settled  communities  the  con- 
ditions of  India  are  repeated,  and  so  there  prevails  in 
Puerto  Rico  a  widespread  and  grinding  poverty  un- 
known in  Europe  or  in  America.  There  are,  in  round 
numbers,  a  million  people  upon  the  island.  Seventy 
thousand  are  negroes,  250,000  of  mixed  negro  and  white 
blood  and  about  700,000  are  the  result  of  the  settlement 
by  the  wild  adventurers,  of  all  races  and  nations,  who, 
in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  sailed  and 
fought  on  the  Spanish  Main.  One  hundred  thousand  of 
these  people  can  read  or  write ;  about  50,000  can  do  both 
Nine  hundred  thousand  are  in  absolute  ignorance. 

MO 


Of  this  million,  800,000  derive  their  living  from  agri- 
cultural pursuits.  They  live  in  huts,  consisting  of  one 
room ;  they  have  work  only  during  the  season  for  coffee, 
for  sugar  and  tobacco.  The  children  from  ten  to  six- 
teen years  of  age  earn  about  ten  cents  a  day ;  vigorous 
manhood  receives  thirty  cents,  and  old  age,  again,  from 
ten  to  fifteen  cents.  They  live  on  sugar  cane  and  the 
fruits  that  grow,  and  are  so  cheap,  in  the  Tropics,  and 
it  is  estimated  can  sustain  life  on  five  cents  a  day  per 
individual.  Most  of  them  have  never  known  bread  or 
meat  as  it  is  familiar  to  our  people.  They  are  hired  by 
the  day,  the  contract  closing  with  the  sun.  By  this 
means  the  owners  of  the  large  estates  are  free  from  re- 
sponsibility for  their  care  or  maintenance,  a  responsi- 
bility which  would  come  if  the  contracts  were  by  the 
month  or  by  the  year.  There  are  no  schoolhouses  in 
the  island.  Thus  eight-tenths  of  this  population  are 
ignorant  of  politics,  of  government,  of  Spanish  or  Ameri- 
can rule,  and  intent  only  upon  the  always  immediate 
and  exigent  necessity  of  subsistence  and  life.  In  the 
majority  of  the  families  the  heads  are  unmarried  be- 
cause they  had  not  the  money  under  Spanish  rule  to  pay 
the  expenses  of  the  marriage  ceremony,  civil  or  reli- 
gious. The  200,000  remaining  consist  of  the  landhold- 
ers, merchants  and  factors,  and  of  the  carriers  and 
skilled  artisans  in  the  towns  and  the  small  storekeepers 
in  the  country. 

The  island  itself  consists  of  two  millions  of  acres. 
There  are  1,200,000  acres  in  pasture,  181,000  in  coffee, 
70,000  in  sugar,  14,000  in  tobacco  and  the  rest  is  in  for- 
ests, orchards,  gardens  and  underbrush.  The  land  of 
the  island  is  owned  in  43,000  estates.  A  large  propor- 
tion of  these  owners  are  Spaniards,  English  and  other 

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foreigners.  The  coffee,  sugar  and  tobacco  estates  are 
mortgaged  for  about  one-quarter  of  their  value  at  rates 
of  interest  varying  from  ten  to  twenty-five  per  cent. 
The  profits  of  production  are  so  great,  even  with  the 
antiquated  machinery  in  use,  that  with  normal  crops 
and  Avith  the  Dingley  tariff  in  full  force,  as  it  has  been, 
against  them  for  the  past  four  years,  they  were  enabled 
to  meet  this  interest  and  enjoy  as  much  prosperity  as  is 
possible  under  Spanish  rule.  The  government  by  Spain 
was  oppressive  to  a  degree.  The  taxes  were  enormous, 
no  roads  were  built,  no  schoolhouses  erected,  no  public 
improvements  maintained,  but  these  great  revenues 
were  dissipated  by  the  Spanish  officials.  There  was  no 
justice  in  the  courts,  favoritism  and  bribery  being  uni- 
versal. There  was  no  habeas  corpus,  and  civil  rights 
were  not  respected.  Arbitrary  arrests  were  made  and 
citizens  lay  in  dungeons  for  years  because  there  was  no 
way  by  which  they  could  get  a  trial.  The  Spanish  Gov- 
ernment gauged  its  exactions  by  the  profit  of  the  planter, 
and  managed  to  take  nearly  everything  that  the  planter 
could  make  which  he  could  fairly  call  net  above  main- 
tenance, his  own  support  and  the  interest  upon  his  debts. 

For  the  five  years  preceding  our  occupancy  the  average 
yearly  value  of  the  exports  of  the  island  was  $16,000,000,  of 
which  $10,000,000  were  coffee,  $4,000,000  sugar,  $700,000 
tobacco,  and  the  rest  molasses,  cattle  and  hides.  Such 
was  the  condition  of  this  island  when  it  was  occupied 
by  our  troops,  and  submitted  to  our  authority  with 
scarcely  a  struggle.  The  introduction  of  American 
methods  and  government  were  rapidly  producing  most 
beneficent  results,  when  a  calamity  occurred  which  has 
no  parallel  as  affecting  the  whole  people  of  a  country. 

As  will  be  seen  from  these  figures,  the  great  staple  of 
the  island,  which  employed,  in  one  form  or  another, 

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nearly  three-quarters  of  the  population  and  capital,  was 
coffee.  The  coffee  plantations  are  upon  the  steep  moun- 
tain sides,  and  run  from  the  foothills  to  the  peaks.  The 
coffee  berry  can  not  thrive  under  the  tropical  sun  unless 
protected  by  partial  shade,  and  so  the  original  forests 
which  clothed  these  mountain  sides  were  cleared  of  un- 
derbrush and  in  its  place  the  coffee-bearing  trees  were 
planted.  The  hurricane  which  swept  over  the  island 
destroyed  nearly  the  whole  of  these  plantations.  It 
threw  down  the  forest  trees  or  broke  off  the  branches, 
and  they  fell  crisscross,  producing  a  network  over  the 
coffee  bushes  which  made  the  farm  a  wreck.  Under  the 
tropical  sun  the  weeds  which  choke  the  berries  unless 
kept  out  began  to  grow  luxuriantly. 

The  testimony  showed  that  every  day  added  to  the 
danger  of  the  annihilation  of  the  coffee  plantation;  that 
in  six  months  most  of  the  coffee-berry  plants  would  be 
killed,  the  plantations  would  have  to  be  planted  anew 
and  it  would  take  five  years  for  the  plant  to  reach  ma- 
turity. The  coffee  planters,  being,  all  of  them,  in  debt, 
had  no  credit  and  no  resources  with  which  to  clear  off 
their  farms.  They  had  no  machinery,  but  could  have 
worked  out  the  problem  by  the  superabundance  of  labor 
with  which  they  were  surrounded  if  they  had  had  the 
capital  to  employ  it.  The  hurricane  produced  very 
great  but  not  equally  disastrous  damage  upon  the  sugar 
and  tobacco  plantations.  So  within  twenty-four  hours 
800,000  people  were  left  without  any  occupation  or 
means  of  support,  and  the  proprietors  without  any 
credit  or  money  with  which  to  clear  their  farms  and 
employ  the  laborers  who  were  clamoring  for  work  and 
starving  all  about  them.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  say- 
ing that  if  the  island  had  not  in  this  distress  been  under 
the  United  States,  but  had  remained  under  the  old 


10 

Spanish  regime,  the  amount  of  suffering  and  starvation 
would  have  appalled  the  world.  But  the  President  and 
the  Secretary  of  War,  acting  through  General  Davis 
and  the  officers  of  the  Army,  used  about  $1,000,000  of 
the  emergency  fund  in  feeding  these  poor  people  and  in 
preventing  one  of  the  ghastliest  horrors  of  modern 
times. 

The  suspension  of  coffee,  sugar  and  tobacco  industries 
reacted  upon  the  people  in  the  towns  who  lived  by 
handling  these  products  and  by  furnishing  the  supplies 
to  the  people  of  the  interior.  There  was  paralysis  on 
the  one  hand  of  the  purchasing  power  of  their  former 
customers,  and  on  the  other  of  the  occupations  by  which 
they  themselves  earned  a  living.  With  the  island  in 
this  stricken  condition,  and  the  people  in  this  deplorable 
situation,  it  was  impossible  to  raise  revenues  for  schools, 
for  roads,  for  courts,  for  police  or  for  any  purpose  of 
government  by  direct  taxation.  The  Puerto  Rican  gov- 
ernment must  be  supported  and  the  means  found  for 
the  recuperation  of  Puerto  Rican  industries  and  the 
resurrection  of  Puerto  Rican  farms  and  the  salvation  of 
the  Puerto  Rican  people  either  by  taxing  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  by  taking  money  bodily  out  of  the 
United  States  Treasury  and  pauperizing  the  island,  or 
by  finding  a  method  by  which  the  island  itself  can  secure 
income  and  credit.  It  was  when  these  conditions  had 
become  familiar  to  our  committee  that  we  changed  our 
bill  from  free  trade  to  the  tariff  measure  which  is  now 
before  the  Senate,  a  tariff  measure  which  is  not  a  Chi-, 
nese  wall,  not  an  oppressive  act  of  arbitrary  power,  but 
the  most  generous  and  beneficent  revenue  system  ever 
adopted  by  any  government,  because  it  gives  to  the 

island  of  Puerto  Rico  not  only  the  duties  collected  at 
mo 


11 

her  own  ports,  but  the  duties  collected  under  our  laws 
at  our  ports  upon  products  coming  from  the  island. 

When  Daniel  Webster  was  charged  with  being  incon- 
sistent in  his  later  opinion,  he  said,  "It  is  the  privilege 
of  wise  men  to  change  their  minds."  The  members  of 
our  committee  do  not  make  'any  special  claim  to  wis- 
dom, but  we  have  considered  this  question  with  open 
minds.  The  President  has  an  open  mind,  and  in  view  of 
the  later  and  overwhelming  testimony  about  Puerto 
Rican  conditions,  is  satisfied  with  the  solution  of  them 
which  this  measure  gives.  General  Davis,  the  governor 
of  Puerto  Rico,  whose  ability  and  fairness  no  one  ques- 
tions, has  an  open  mind,  and  after  disbursing  a  million 
of  dollars  for  the  relief  of  the  Puerto  Rican  people,  and 
becoming  personally  familiar  with  their  conditions,  on 
March  31 — that  is,  last  Saturday — gave  this  authorita- 
tive opinion: 

I  have  not  felt  it  proper  for  me  to  discuss  Congressional  matters, 
filling,  as  I  do,  an  executive  position.  1  have  expressed  my  views 
fully,  however,  on  Puerto  Rico's  needs,  and  I  might  say  if  Con- 
gress should  adopt  free  trade  the  receipts  of  the  custom-houses 
would  naturally  cease.  One  million  five  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars has  been  collected  during  the  fiscal  year,  and  with  free  trade 
this  will  fall  off.  What,  then,  will  run  the  island?  Although  I 
have  received  no  official  advices  regarding  an  appropriation,  I 
understand  through  the  newspapers  that  an  appropriation  was 
decided  upon,  and  I  infer  that  this  appropriation  will  be  spent  on 
insular  government  expenses.  If  free  trade  is  adopted  I  can  not 
see  how  the  necessary  funds  for  the  conduct  of  the  affairs  of  the 
island  are  to  be  raised  by  myself  or  those  who  succeed  me.  Two 
million  dollars  are  the  present  expenses,  and  this  amount  will  be 
needed  annually.  There  is  only  a  small  revenue  incoming  from 
stamps,  liquors,  tobacco,  and  mercantile  licenses,  and  it  is  impos- 
sible to  collect  taxes  because  of  the  conditions. 

I  wish  in  this  connection  to  congratulate  my  friend, 
the  honorable  Senator  from  Georgia  [Mr.  BACON],  that 
he  has  an  open  mind.  He  introduced  on  Friday  our 

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original  bill  as  a  substitute  for  this  one,  which  shows 
that  my  eloquent  and  able  friend  is  within  two  months 
of  us.  [Laughter.]  Within  twenty-eight  hours  this 
bill  is  going  to  pass;  the  procession  is  moving  on,  and 
ho  had  better  get  into  the  band  wagon  before  it  is  too 
late.  I  say  to  my  friend,  the  Senator  from  Georgia,  and 
his  colleagues,  that  within  twenty-eight  hours  is  the  op- 
portunity. There  are  vacancies  on  the  praying  benches 
for  salvation,  and  the}7  had  better  come  in.  [Laughter.] 
We  come  naturally  now  to  the  question  of  hardships 
upon  the  Puerto  Rican  people  and  of  cruelty  to  the  in- 
habitants of  our  new  possessions  by  the  proposed  legis- 
lation. We  were  told  with  wonderful  eloquence  and 
passionate  rhetoric  when  the  Puerto  Rican  relief  bill  to 
appropriate  $2,000,000  was  before  the  Senate,  that  it 
was  our  plain  duty  to  return  to  the  people  who  have 
paid  the  duties  under  the  Dingley  tariff  act  since  our 
occupation  the  money  which  had  been  collected.  The 
whole  policy  of  the  Republican  party,  from  the  Presi- 
dent to  Congress,  has  been  to  give  back  to  Puerto  Rico 
all  the  taxes  levied  and  collected  upon  her  products  at 
the  ports  of  the  United  States  and  also  all  duties  col- 
lected at  her  own  ports — to  give  them  back  to  her  for  the 
purposes  of  her  government  and  for  the  purposes  of  her 
improvement  and  her  progress.  These  duties  had  been 
paid  by  the  sugar  trust,  which  controls  the  sugar  prod- 
ucts of  the  island,  and  the  tobacco  trust,  which  controls 
the  tobacco  product  of  the  island — two  of  the  richest 
and  greatest  money-making  corporations  in  the  world. 
They  had  bought  the  sugar  and  tobacco  at  a  price 
which  included  the  Dingley  tariff  duties  and  sold  them 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States  at  a  large  profit 
after  the  duties  were  paid.  In  the  bill  which  we  have 
just  passed  appropriating  this  $2,000,000,  instead  of 

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13 

paying  these  duties  back  to  these  corporations,  which 
have  been  the  subject  of  so  much  abuse  and  with  whom 
we  have  been  charged  with  being  allied,  we  have  given 
them  back  to  the  people  of  Puerto  Rico  for  their  school- 
houses,  for  their  roads,  for  the  relief  of  their  starving 
and  for  the  employment  which  will  come  in  the  proper 
administration  of  the  fund. 

The  analysis  of  the  productions  of  the  island  which 
are  exported  shows  that  about  five-eighths  is  coffee. 
There  is  no  duty  on  coffee,  and  so  there  is  no  outrage 
there.  There  is  a  duty  at  present  of  $1.60  per  hundred 
pounds  upon  sugar  and  $1.85  per  pound  upon  tobacco 
under  the  Dingley  tariff  act.  There  are  millions  of 
dollars'  worth  cf  this  sugar  and  tobacco,  owned  by  the 
sugar  and  tobacco  trusts,  which  is  held  from  the  market 
and  stored  in  warehouses  in  Puerto  Rico  awaiting  the 
action  upon  this  bill.  This  sugar  and  tobacco  was 
bought  from  the  planters  of  Puerto  Rico  at  a  price 
which  included  these  Dingley  tariff  duties  and  still  left 
a  large  profit  for  the  purchaser.  Every  concession 
made  from  the  Dingley  tariff  is  that  much  more  clear 
profit,  not  to  the  producer,  or  the  laborer,  or  the  citizen 
of  Puerto  Rico,  but  to  these  purchasers  of  their  prod- 
ucts. So  by  this  act  we  are,  out  of  the  hundred  per 
cent  of  additional  profit  which  the  sugar  trust  and 
tobacco  trust  would  receive  under  free  trade,  taking 
fifteen  per  cent  for  the  people  of  Puerto  Rico  and  leaving 
the  purchasers  eighty-five  per  cent  for  their  own  income. 
The  only  difference  between  the  original  recommenda- 
tion of  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  the  action 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  of  the  Senate  com- 
mittee is  in  the  method  by  which  the  people  of  Puerto 
Rico  can  receive  the  whole  of  the  revenue  from  the  tariff. 

The  President's  recommendation  of  free  trade  was 

4290 


14 

made  in  order  that  Puerto  Rieans  might  have  the  use  of 
those  duties  in  Puerto  Rico  by  not  having  to  pay  them — 
that  is,  by  keeping  the  money  for  public  purposes  in  the 
island.  The  proposition  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives and  of  this  committee  is  that  those  duties  shall  be 
collected  and  returned  to  the  people  of  Puerto  Rico, 
because  it  is  the  only  way  by  which  the  people  of  the 
island  will  get  a  dollar  of  benefit  from  them.  Now,  from 
whom  will  they  be  collected?  In  the  last  twenty-five 
years  sugar  has  fluctuated  as  much  as  any  other  product 
in  the  market;  coffee  has  been  subject  to  the  opening  of 
new  sources  of  supply,  to  failures  of  crops  and  to  all 
those  elements  which  add  or  take  away  from  25  to  50 
per  cent  of  the  market  price.  But  while  coffee  and 
sugar  importers  have  grown  rich  and  by  their  skill,  their 
capital  and  their  far-sightedness  been  able  always  to 
calculate  future  prospects  and  to  make  money,  no  mat- 
ter what  the  conditions,  the  laborer  upon  the  planta- 
t  ions  who  produced  these  crops  has  never  known  any 
difference  in  his  wage.  Unhappily  for  him,  the  labor 
market  was  always  overstocked;  unhappily  for  him, 
there  was  no  industry  but  the  land  to  which  he  or  his 
family  could  apply  for  help.  He  was  "the  man  with 
the  hoe,"  meeting  all  the  conditions  of  Dr.  Markham's 
remarkable  poem.  He  was  too  ignorant  to  know  when 
good  times  were  making  fortunes  for  those  who  handle 
the  product  which  he  raised  by  his  labor;  he  was  too 
poverty  stricken  to  subsist  in  an  organized  effort  to  in- 
crease the  remuneration  for  his  toil.  It  will  be  many  a 
year  before  these  conditions  change  for  the  masses  of 
the  Puerto  Rican  people.  They  can  never  change  when 
an  overcrowded  population  has  but  one  means  of  liveli- 
hood and  there  are  no  varied  industries  for  its  relief. 

42911 


15 

Then  who  pays  this  tariff,  and  who  gets  the  benefit  of 
it?  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Puerto  Rico  it  is 
paid  by  those  who  make  money  out  of  her,  by  those  who 
are  enriched  by  her  toil,  by  those  who  are  far  removed 
from  the  ignorance  and  the  suffering  and  the  squalor  of 
her  population.  The  tariff  money  taken  from  them 
goes  really  to  the  people  of  Puerto  Rico  who  never  be- 
fore received  any  benefit.  It  will  go  for  schoolhouses 
and  school-teachers,  which  will  make  the  next  genera- 
tion worthier  of  citizenship  and  self-government;  it  will 
go  for  roads,  which  will  give  employment  and  opportu- 
nities for  other  industries  than  merely  agricultural;  it 
will  go  for  those  ordinary  functions  of  government 
which  must  be  maintained  or  you  have  anarchy,  and 
they  will  be  maintained  by  this  process  without  those 
burdens  of  direct  taxation  which,  in  the  present  condi- 
tion of  Puerto  Rico,  would  be  such  a  terrific  brake  upon 
her  progress. 

Now  as  to  the  charge  that  it  will  stifle  the  industries 
of  Puerto  Rico.  Puerto  Rican  coffee,  representing 
five-eighths  of  her  product  and  of  her  labor,  will  come 
in  free;  Puerto  Rican  sugar  and  tobacco  will  come  into 
our  ports  in  competition  with  the  sugar  and  tobacco  of 
Cuba.  Puerto  Rican  sugar  and  tobacco,  when  the  Ding- 
ley  tariff  applied  equally  to  both  Cuba  and  Puerto  Rico, 
found  a  ready  and  remunerative  market  in  this  country. 
Under  the  operations  of  this  bill,  by  which  full  tariff 
duties  are  paid  by  all  others  and  only  fifteen  per  cent  of 
them  by  Puerto  Ricans,  the  Cuban  sugar  man  will  pay 
in  Dingley  tariff  duties  $1.60  for  every  100  pounds,  while 
the  Puerto  Rican  sugar  man  will  pay  24  cents.  The  price 
of  sugar,  because  of  the  enormous  demand  in  this  coun- 
try, which  is  in  excess  of  the  supply,  will  be  maintained. 

4290 


16 

The  Cuban  sugar  dealer  will  make  a  profit  after  paying 
$1.60  duty,  and  the  Puerto  Rican  sugar  man  will  make 
the  same  profit  with  an  addition,  on  account  of  the  con- 
cession of  85  por  cent  to  him  of  $1.36  on  every  hundred 
pounds.  This  will  practically  give  the  controllers  of 
the  sugar  product  of  Puerto  Rico  a  return  of  from  fifty  to 
eighty  per  cent  on  their  investment.  Precisely  the  same 
conditions  and  precisely  the  same  excess  of  profit  will 
be  the  good  fortune  of  the  Puerto  Rican  tobacco  pro- 
ducer or  dealer  under  this  concession  of  85  per  cent 
from  the  Dingley  tariff  as  against  his  Cuban  competitor. 
There  can  be  but  one  result  of  this  concession  of  85  per 
cent  to  Puerto  Rico  as  against  Cuba,  and  that  is  an 
enormous  stimulus,  on  account  of  the  enormous  profit, 
to  both  sugar  and  tobacco  areas  and  productions  in  the 
island  of  Puerto  Rico. 

Bearing  in  mind  these  figures  and  these  enormous 
profits  under  this  concession  of  85  per  cent  from  Ding- 
ley  tariff  duties,  and  still  greater  profits  with  free  trade, 
the  following  opinion  from  President  Havemeyer,  of 
the  sugar  trust,  is  a  contribution  of  great  importance  to 
this  discussion.  ,  It  settles  emphatically  in  what  direc- 
tion lie  the  interests  of  the  sugar  trust: 

NEW  YORK  BUREAU  CHICAGO  TRIBUNE, 

Neiv  York,  March  29. 

President  Havemeyer,  of  the  American  Sugar  Refining  Com- 
pany, was  the  center  of  interest  in  speculative  circles  to-day,  owing 
to  the  cut  of  5  cents  a  hundred  pounds  announced  by  the  Ar- 
buckles  and  the  possible  action  of  the  Havemeyer  interests.  The 
sugar  king,  in  discussing  the  whole  situation,  was  plain  and  out- 
spoken regarding  the  position  of  Puerto  Rico  and  the  Philippines, 
and  declared  that  there  was  no  reason  in  the  world  why  sugars 
should  not  be  admitted  free  of  duty  from  those  countries. 

"I  am  much  in  favor  of  it,"  he  said,  "  and  I  believe  the  time  is 
not  far  off  when  they  will  be  admitted  free  of  duty.  Why,  both 
of  those  countries  are  part  and  parcel  of  the  United  States,  and  no 
matter  what  action  Congress  takes,  1  am  confident  the  Supreme 

429f 


17 

Court  will  hold  that  the  products  of  those  colonies  are  entitled  to 
free  entry  here. 

"There  is  no  more  reason  why  a  duty  should  be  placed  upon  the 
products  of  Puerto  Rico  than  on  stuff  coming  into  New  York  from 
Long  Island.  There  is  only  a  wide  ditch  between  the  United 
States  and  Puerto  Rico.  Well .  if  Puerto  Rican  sugars  are  brought 
in  free,  it  will  not  be  long  before  some  similar  policy  is  adopted 
with  reference  to  Cuban  products." 

Here  also  is  the  opinion  giving  Saturday  by  W.  T. 
Townes,  president  of  the  Puerto  Rico-American  Tobacco 
Company : 

W.  T.  Townes,  president  of  the  Puerto  Rico- American  Tobacco 
Company,  says  that  the  proposed  tariff  will  keep  Puerto  Rico  out 
of  the  American  market;  that  Puerto  Rico  will  sell  to  Europe, 
China,  and  Japan,  and  not  a  pound  to  the  United  States. 

Puerto  Rican  industrial  conditions,  because  of  sur- 
plus population,  lack  of  remunerative  employment  and 
paralyzing  poverty,  have  thrown  the  transactions  of  the 
island  into  a  few  hands.  As  I  have  said  before,  the 
land  is  divided  into  43,000  estates  in  a  population  of 
1,000,000  people.  The  business  of  supplying  the  de- 
mands of  the  population,  as  well  as  handling  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  island,  is  conducted  by  comparatively  a 
handful  of  as  keen  and  enterprising  business  men  as 
there  are  in  the  world.  Under  these  conditions  they 
will  control  the  price  both  of  the  things  which  the  island 
consumes  and  which  the  island  produces  until  educa- 
tion, intelligence  and  varied  employments  have  re- 
deemed the  island.  A  startling  instance  is  given  of  this 
by  cable,  which  informs  us  of  the  rise  in  the  price  of 
food  during  the  last  few  days.  Under  the  Executive 
orders  of  the  President  all  breadstuffs  now  enter  Puerto 
Rican  territory  free  of  duty,  and  yet  the  few  men  who 
control  the  supplies  which  feed  the  Puerto  Rican  peo- 
ple and  import  them  from  the  United  States,  though 
they  go  in  absolutely  free,  have  raised  the  price  100  per 

4290-2 


18 

cent  to  these  poor,  starving  people,  who  are  unable  to 
get  any  relief.  The  tariff  of  15  per  cent  if  it  had  been 
imposed  would  not  raise  this  price;  it  would  be  paid  by 
these  dealers.  It  would  amount  to  four  cents  a  barrel 
on  flour,  and  to  a  proportionately  small  amount  on 
other  products,  but  the  vivifying  influences  of  revenue 
in  the  hands  of  an  intelligent  government  and  the  great 
profit  in  the  importations  would  speedily  open  the  way 
for  the  farmers  of  the  United  States  to  ship  into  that 
market  their  products  in  such  measure  that,  while  they 
made  money,  these  exactions  could  no  longer  be  imposed 
upon  the  Puerto  Rlcan  people. 

Under  this  bill  this  tariff  lasts  only  two  years,  and 
may  be  ended  by  the  Puerto  Rican  legislature  at  any 
time.  It  is  a  tentative  measure;  it  is  wholly  for  the 
benefit  of  the  people  of  Puerto  Rico;  its  proceeds  are 
used  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  improve  their  condi- 
tions and  enlarge  their  opportunities.  Congress  is- 
always  in  session,  and  two  years  will  be  an  object  lesson 
in  the  experiment  of  caring  for  and  governing  the  Puerto 
Ricans. 

The  singular  thing  about  this  whole  matter  is  the  iso- 
lation of  sentiment.  There  seems  to  be  a  storm  center 
of  hostile  sentiment  in  Indiana  and  none  in  Ohio;  that 
there  is  a  fever  in  Minnesota  but  not  in  Michigan;  that 
there  is  great  indignation  in  Oregon  and  not  a  particle 
in  New  York  or  Pennsylvania  or  New  England,  except 
Vermont.  Why  Vermont  at  this  season  of  the  year 
should  melt  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  the  phenomena 
of  nature.  [Laughter.]  It  even  warmed  up  my  dis- 
tinguished friend  the  senior  Senator  from  Vermont  [Mr. 
PROCTOR]  into  a  glowing  sympathy  and  tenderness  for 
free  trade  as  a  panacea  for  a  stricken  people  which  I 

4290 


19 

have  seldom  witnessed,  even  with  the  most  emotional  of 
my  friends.  Why  is  it? 

The  history  of  remedial  legislation  presents  no  ex- 
ample of  baseless  excitement  like  that  which  prevails 
over  this  measure  in  certain  parts  of  the  United  States. 
The  localization  of  the  storm  is  unprecedented.  It  has 
great  volume  and  force  in  one  State,  with  little  evidence 
of  it  in  the  adjoining  Commonwealth.  A  Northwestern 
State  may  have  the  fever,  while  the  Middle  States  and 
New  England  are  normal.  In  every  instance  in  the 
contests  of  parties  where  a  principle  was  at  issue,  the 
sentiment  of  the  party  in  one  State  has  been  equally 
pronounced  in  every  State.  This  phenomenal  localiza- 
tion of  interest  compels  the  conclusion  that  a  mere 
matter  of  providing  means  for  carrying  on  government 
and  relieving  distress  has  been  exaggerated  into  an 
acute  struggle  over  a  fundamental  principle  of  right, 
or  morals  or  both. 

This  bill  is  the  people's  law.  It  restricts,  as  far  as  can 
be  done,  the  power  of  trusts  or  combinations  or  concen- 
tration of  industries.  It  puts  upon  the  free  list  these 
products  going  from  the  United  States  into  Puerto 
Rico — the  food  products  from  the  American  farmer — so 
that  the  American  farmer  has  this  market  free  as 
against  the  agriculture  of  other  countries,  whose  im- 
ports must  pay  Dingley  tariff  rates.  It  gives  to  the 
Puerto  Ricans  the  fullest  opportunity  for  cheap  food. 
Agricultural  implements,  which  are  so  necessary  for  the 
resurrection  of  island  cultivation,  and  the  adoption  of 
modern  machinery  to  aid  in  lower  cost  and  larger  crops, 
are  free.  Rough  lumber  for  mills,  coopers'  materials 
for  sugar,  molasses  and  tobacco,  and  bags  for  coffee, 
are  free. 

4290 


20 

Carriages  to  cheapen  transportation  and  trees  and 
plants  to  give  variety  in  crops  by  raising  large  and  small 
fruits,  for  which  the  island  is  peculiarly  adapted,  are 
free,  as  are  all  drugs  which  are  used  in  the  malarial 
diseases  of  tropical  countries.  In  a  word,  every  product 
of  the  farm  or  factory  in  the  United  States  which  will 
help  Puerto  Rico,  enable  her  to  rise  triumphant  from 
her  ruins  and  give  remunerative  use  for  capital  and 
employment  and  wages  to  her  people,  are  on  the  free 
list.  The  luxuries  consumed  by  the  prosperous  are,  as 
they  ought  to  be,  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  whole  question  of  taxation 
is  remitted  by  this  bill  to  the  people  and  government  of 
Puerto  Rico.  Here  is  the  charter  of  Puerto  Rican  self- 
government.  It  is  the  spear  which  punctures  the  huge 
and  swaying  balloon  of  tyranny,  oppression  and  viola- 
tions of  the  Constitution  and  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence so  laboriously  blown  out  and  expanded  in  the  past 
few  weeks.  While  standing  on  the  collapsed  canvas, 
and  viewing  its  tragic  mottoes,  listen  to  the  plain  and 
passionless  words  of  this  bill : 

SEC.  4.  And  whenever  the  legislative  assembly  of  Puerto  Rico 
shall  have  enacted  and  put  into  operation  a  system  of  local  taxa- 
tion to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  government  of  Puerto  Rico  by 
this  act  established,  and  shall  by  resolution  duly  passed  so  notify 
the  President,  he  shall  make  proclamation  thereof,  and  thereupon 
all  tariff  duties  on  merchandise  and  articles  going  into  Puerto 
Rico  from  the  United  States  or  coming  into  the  United  States 
from  Puerto  Rico  shall  cease,  and  from  and  after  such  date  all 
Buch  merchandise  and  articles  shall  be  entered  at  the  several  ports 
of  entry  free  of  duty;  and  in  no  event  shall  any  such  duties  be 
collected  after  the  1st  day  of  March,  1902. 

In  a  word,  what  is  all  this  contention  about?  What 
is  the  apple  of  discord  which  is  lashing  some  friends  to 

4290 


21 

fury?  The  President  proposed  free  trace,  and  this  bill 
gives  free  trade  in  all  the  necessaries  of  life,  in  all  im- 
plements and  manufactures  required  for  the  resuscita- 
tion, development  and  working  of  industries,  and  a 
tariff  amounting,  on  the  average,  to  six  per  cent  upon 
their  market  value,  on  other  products. 

This  tariff  comes  off  bjT  operation  of  law  in  two  years, 
and  as  much  sooner  as  the  people  of  the  island,  through 
their  own  legislature,  decide  to  abolish  it  because  they 
can  raise  the  revenues  necessary  for  the  support  of 
their  government,  their  roads  and  their  schools,  and 
for  their  general  welfare  by  direct  taxation. 

The  opposition  to  this  bill  is  the  result  of  the  usual 
tactical  operations  for  advantageous  positions  in  a  Pres- 
idential year.  The  Calhoun  theory  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  century-old  fight  of  free  trade  to  destroy  pro- 
tection have  made  a  united  and  desperate  charge  upon 
the  policy  and  provisions  of  this  measure.  The  Demo- 
cratic position  in  regard  to  our  island  territories  is 
clearly  defined.  They  will  claim  that  the  moment  any 
territory  becomes  the  property  of  the  United  States  by 
conquest,  purchase,  cession  or  discovery  it  is  under  our 
Constitution  and  laws;  that  its  people  and  products 
have  the  same  rights  and  are  entitled  to  the  same  free- 
dom of  movement  all  over  the  United  States  as  the  peo- 
ple and  products  of  any  State  in  the  Union;  that  state- 
hood must  speedily  come  and  can  not  be  denied;  that 
this  would  break  down  every  protective  barrier  against 
pauper  labor  and  admit  free  into  our  ports  the  things 
produced  by  people  working  in  our  tropical  possessions 
for  a  few  cents  a  day  and  would  degrade  our  citizen- 
ship, and,  therefore,  if  they  get  in  powor  they  will  at 
once  abandon  these  islands. 

4290 


22 

The  Republican  party  stands  upon  the  action  of  Jef- 
ferson, Monroe,  Jackson,  Polk,  Pierce  and  Seward,  that 
Congress  has  the  power  to  govern  these  acquisitions 
subject  only  to  the  prohibitions  of  the  Constitution. 

I  was  very  much  pleased  in  listening  to  my  friend,  the 
distinguished  Senator  from  Tennessee  [Mr.  BATE],  to 
find  him  advocating  what  Jefferson  did  and  what  Mon- 
roe did  and  what  Pierce  did  and  what  Polk  did,  because 
they  were  all  Southerners  and  all  Democrats.  At  the 
same  time  he  vigorously  opposed  precisely  the  same  leg- 
islation for  our  new  possessions  which  they  had  enacted 
for  territories  acquired  by  them.  We  stand  where  Jef- 
ferson did  and  legislate  as  he  legislated ;  where  Monroe 
did,  and  legislate  as  he  legislated;  where  Pierce  and 
Polk  did,  and  legislate  as  they  legislated.  But  my  friend 
and  his  associates  ha^e  wandered  far  from  these  old 
leaders  of  their  party. 

I  recall  for  the  consideration  and  admonition  of  my 
Democratic  friends  that  story  of  General  Jackson's  gov- 
ernorship of  Florida,  to  which  he  was  appointed  by 
President  Monroe,  under  the  act  of  Congress  of  March 
3,  1821,  providing  "that  all  military,  civil  and  judicial 
powers  shall  be  vested  in  such  person  and  persons  and 
shall  be  exercised  in  such  manner  as  the  President  of 
the  United  States  shall  direct."  He  claimed  and  exer- 
cised the  executive,  legislative  and  judicial  functions 
of  government  under  this  commission,  and  was  sus- 
tained in  them  all.  As  legislature  he  enacted  laws 
which  brought  him,  as  governor,  in  conflict  with  the 
ex-governor  under  Spain.  As  governor  he  promptly 
arrested  ana  imprisoned  that  ex-official,  and  as  judge 
proceeded  to  punish  for  contempt  the  Federal  district 
judge,  who  had  issued  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  for  the 

4290 


23 

Spaniard's  release.  It  was  after  all  this  that  he  became 
and  has  since  continued  to  be  claimed  as  leader,  coun- 
selor and  inspiration  for  the  Democratic  party. 

Under  this  power  we  can  and  will  provide  both  for 
the  development  of  our  new  possessions  and  the  protec- 
tion of  industries  and  employment  within  the  United 
States.  As  time  and  experience  demonstrate  the  neces- 
sity for  new  laws  and  changes  of  existing  laws,  they  will 
be  enacted,  but  always  with  intent  to  maintain  the  high 
standard  of  American  citizenship  and  the  scale  of  Ameri- 
can wages.  Preferential  tariffs  will  promote  trade  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  all  these  islands. 

Puerto  Rico,  Hawaii,  Guam,  Tutuila  and  the  Philip- 
pines are  to  be  held  and  governed  by  the  United  States 
with  an  imperative  duty  on  our  part  to  their  inhabitants 
for  their  civilization,  the  encouragement  of  enterprises 
which  will  utilize  their  resources,  and  for  their  con- 
stantly increasing  participation  in  their  local  and  general 
governments,  and  also  for  their  and  our  commercial 
progress  and  growth.  I  do  not  believe  that  we  will  in- 
corporate the  alien  races,  and  civilized,  semicivilized, 
barbarous  and  savage  peoples  of  these  islands  into  our 
bod}^  politic  as  States  of  our  Union. 

Order,  law,  justice  and  liberty  will  stimulate  and 
develop  our  new  possessions.  Their  inhabitants  will 
grow  with  responsibilities  of  governing  themselves, 
constantly  increasing  with  their  intelligence  into  condi- 
tions of  prosperity  and  happiness  beyond  their  wildest 
dreams  of  the  results  of  that  self-government  they  now 
so  vaguely  understand,  while  the  United  States,  in  the 
increasing  demand  for  the  surplus  of  our  farms  and 
factories  in  Puerto  Rico,  Hawaii  and  the  Philippines, 
and  in  the  tremendous  advantages  of  position  from 

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Manila  for  reaching  the  limitless  markets  of  the  Orient, 
can  view  without  apprehension  and  with  hopeful  pride 
the  inevitable  expansion  of  our  population  and  pro- 
ductions. 

With  that  belief  I  hail  with  faith,  I  hai.  with  hope,  I 
hail  with  joy  that  expansion  of  our  own  country  in  its 
products,  agricultural  and  manufacturing,  and  in  its 
population,  which  it  is  evident  will  go  on  during  the 
twentieth  century.  [Applause  in  the  galleries.] 

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